Review: 41324 Snow Resort Ski Lift
Posted by MeganL,
The largest of the Friends Winter sets is 41324 Snow Resort Ski Lift. When I looked at the Ski Chalet, I thought it would fit well into a Winter Village display. Will the same hold true for the Ski Lift? With Christmas around the corner, it's a good time to build it and find out!
The front of the box shows the set on full display in a mountainous setting. The five Friends are in the upper right hand corner, and it looks like they're about to start a snowball fight, with Andrea holding a snowball. Other Friends have some wintry accessories, with Emma having a pair of ice skates, Olivia with a cup of hot cocoa and Mia holding a snowboard.
Like the other Snow Resort sets, the Friends ribbon around the box is decorated with icicles and other wintry patterns. The back of the box shows off many of the features of the set through a series of panels.
Inside the box there are four numbered bags, an unnumbered bag containing two white plates and a BURP, a perfect bound instruction book and a small sheet of stickers.
Mia and Olivia are the minidolls in this set. They are both dressed very warmly for the weather in new outfits. Mia is wearing a navy blue jacket with bright lime green and magenta accents. The printing on the front is quite detailed and shows a zipper for an extra pocket as well as a snap closure at the top. She has on purple mittens that matches her purple ski helmet. Her look is finished with reddish violet goggles which make their first appearance in this set.
Mia's has navy blue ski pants with bright yellowish green boots, which matches the accents on her coat. The legs are new this year and are seen in other Snow Resort sets. Olivia is similarly attired - her coat is bright yellow with an asymmetric blue, magenta and white design. The printing similarly shows zippered pockets and she has white mittens. Her head protection is a bright yellowish green and she has white goggles. Olivia has magenta ski pants - that also matches the accents on her coat - and wears very serviceable blue ski boots with yellowish green accents.
The printing on the torsos does not extend to the back, unfortunately, but the back of the helmet pieces does show that the girls have both braided their hair to keep it out of the way while outside (helmets are both unique to this set). Accessories for the girls include a snowboard for Mia and skis with poles for Olivia (seen in later pictures). The first stickers in this set involve applying accents to the snowboard; they're the only stickers I didn't apply to this set.
The obligatory Friends animal in this set is Biscuit, the baby bear. Biscuit is a chocolate brown colour and comes on a small ice floe as well as lunch in the form of a fish. I'm not entirely sure why Biscuit is included in this set but he is very cute.
There are a few auxiliary builds apart from the main portion of the set. The first is a mini slope. I originally thought this was the equivalent of a bunny hill slope for the Friends (hence this picture), but on closer scrutiny of the box cover art it's clear that this is a slope for Biscuit to play on.
The other two auxiliary builds are an equipment rental store and a trail map stand. Not surprisingly, with the exception of the trail map, the rest of the details are provided by stickers. The trail map stand in particular is a good illustration of how white pieces have been used throughout the set to show mounds of snow. There's a couple ski flags included in this set as well that I haven't included in the pictures.
The ski lift is the main part of the build. The Friends can board the ski lift at the bottom of the hill, taking care to be behind the hazard line. There's a small mound of snow with a handrail under the lift where a Friend can show off their snowboarding moves.
Once getting on the ski lift, a Friend can be raised to the top of the ski hill. This action is accomplished by a winch mechanism that can be wound and unwound to rise and lower the lift. The framing of the lift is provided by 1x6x10 lattice masts that are in in this set in a medium azur (first time in this colour). The mechanism works quite smoothly and can be used over and over and over again without fail.
The Friends then make it to the top of the hill. Considering how sturdy the lattices are it seems rather a shame that the height difference from the bottom to the top of the hill is only about six bricks. You can see the details of the winch mechanism in this picture.
Once off the lift, the Friend is ready for their downhill adventure. There's a launching spot at the top of the hill; the ski slope is lined with bright lights to show the way and hinges up and down. In a nice touch there's a blue transparent BURP underneath the ski hill, which you can barely see in this picture.
To have the Friend take to the slope, all that's needed is to turn a gear which will tilt the launching spot sufficiently to allow gravity (and the Friend) to take its course. I think this function is pretty terrific and I may or may not have spent quite a bit of time myself sending the minidolls and Biscuit down the slope.
For Friends who want an extra adventure, there's a rock climbing wall that allows access to top of the hill. This must clearly be for snowboarders only as I can't imagine a skier managing to hold onto skis and ski poles while rock climbing. This is also a feature that I missed completely while building; it wasn't until I read the set description until I really noticed it.
Underneath the top of the ski hill there's a "cave" - at least that's what I think it is. There's one mentioned in the set description, and there's an area under the hill that looks like it could be a little bed for Biscuit. I find it interesting that the section under the hill and the restaurant is empty. It feels like wasted space to me.
Skiing, snowboarding and rock climbing is hard work, so it's quite convenient that there's a restaurant at the top of the hill for the Friends to get some refreshment. It's a fully stocked restaurant - behind the counter there's a stove, a refrigerator stocked with cold drinks, and a yummy looking pie along with a cash register.
There's a small eating area to allow the Friends to enjoy the mountain view surrounding them. They will certainly have plenty to eat with the enormous sandwich on the table! And if they're still hungry after that, there's a hot dog (with a bun!) on the counter waiting for them. A mug, cell phone, drink and binoculars complete the accessories on the table (the dog hair did not come with the original packaging in the set….).
I haven't mentioned the greenery on the mountain - some is provided with some purple and white flowers. There's also a sound system at the restaurant with speakers that are mounted on either side of the restaurant sign (detail also provided by a sticker).
Overall thoughts
The set grew on me after I built it - my first feeling about it was ambivalence. I would like to see the hill higher - the ski lift seems very elaborate for a ski hill that's only about six bricks high. However, there's an incredible amount of play value here - I love the tilting function at the top of the ski hill. If I received this set as a gift when I was a kid, the first thing I would be doing is to see just how much higher I could make the ski hill. I think the set as it comes (585 pieces, $59.99, 59.99€, £54.99) to be a good start. It may be a little pricey for the parts, but there are some finer details that make up for it. One thing to be aware - I found this set to be a little fragile when picking up and moving it around, especially the area under the ski lift.
A few more bricks in height for the ski hill not only would have allowed for some extra play, but the bottom level underneath the restaurant could have be used. As is, that area feels like dead space, except for the small area that I think must be Biscuit's cave. Some of the standalone portions such as the rental counter could have been placed here instead, though that wouldn't look like much of a mountain top. That would have required extra bricks which may have increased the cost. That may have been worth it, in my opinion, especially since this is the largest set in this subtheme.
I'm also not sure how this set will fit in with a Winter Village display. As I'm about to start building my Winter Village sets this year, we'll find out soon enough. There have been some who have commented about seeing my Winter Village display. I'm planning on rebuilding all the Winter Village sets this year, so look for an article or two about rebuilding those sets and putting it together for a display.
All that being said, I would recommend the Snow Resort Ski Lift. Not only for the play value in the set as is, but also because there are so many opportunities for you to make it your own.
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8 comments on this article
They should have covered the ski hill with tiles. It's much more fun as they can go down significantly faster. I have done this in the past MOCing really tall down-hill runs and then putting snow-boarders and skate-boarders down them. Very fun.
I think it would be very difficult to convert the bright color palette to the signature "red and green" color scheme of the winter village. Still I think it has good play value!
I think you have the mini-doll heads onto the wrong outfits -- Mia has freckles and Olivia does not ;-)
Different hairstyles! Only with helmets.....Oh well, it's a start.
Some nice play features. I think I may need to try out the bike from SuperHero High on the slope as it seems to be a similar mechanism
“(the dog hair did not come with the original packaging in the set….).” Awesome! No set is complete in our house either without at least 1 trapped between 2 bricks at some point!
Since the Technic axle on the lift is of fixed length, increasing the height of the hill would also mean moving the hill and the entrance to the lift closer. So, it's a trade-off given the mechanism.
You put the masts at the bottom with the wrong side exposing
Would have been a nice reason to bring back those ramp & pit plates they used with sets in the 1990s. Could have built the hill on top of that to make it even taller...and then they ski down the ramp.